Tag: christmas
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Shiloh IS Come
… until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
לֹֽא־יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִֽיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּֽי־יָבֹא שֶׂילה וְלֹו יִקְּהַת עַמִּֽים׃
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 49:10 WLC; KJVCenturies have passed since Jerusalem fell, was rebuilt and recaptured. Not only have we no peace, but live as a captive people in our own land. And no Prophet has spoken since the days of old. Shiloh, come Shiloh; LORD send peace to the people of your covenant.
The LORD has answered our prayer
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
Jeremiah 17:13 KJV – 6th c.B.C.Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying, “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah…”
and that the Lord will cleanse the land by the ‘strong and abundant waters’ of Judah’s powerful enemy.
If only you had paid attention to my commands.
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. – Isaiah 48:18 CSB
Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Kol-Hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David.
Nehemiah 3:15 NIV – 4th c.B.C.“Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. – Daniel 9:17
In the Beginning
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. – John 1:1-2 NKJV
The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2 NKJV6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:26a-27 NASBNow a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
Genesis 2:10 NKJVWE Have Been Here Before
In our lead up to Christmas I have pointed to the Trinity and eternity of the Lord God. One way to think of an eternal Jesus is as the Son of Man in a Manger,
A Child is Born
For thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…
Isaiah 66:12a NKJVAnd behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid… “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” – The Good News of Luke 2:9,12 NKJV
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
Luke 2:13-14 NKJV *textral translation
And on earth peace, toward men of goodwill!“She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” – The Good News of Matthew 1:21 CSB
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 CSBLiving Water
Give me a drink.
request of Jesus to a woman at Jacob’s well – John 4:7Jesus asks you one thing, so do you do it?
(This is the same Jesus born in a manger just thirty years earlier and the same Jesus who was ‘with God in the beginning.’)
OR do you question the Lord?
9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”
Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
The Gospel of John 4:10 CSBYou encounter a sinless Son of Man – Jesus – in a manger, on a Cross or along the road of life. Will you ask Him for living water?
Jesus walked on water and He calmed the waters of the stormy sea.
The Lord created, gave life to dust and walked Personally alongside the faithful. He IS the source of the spring of Eden, the river of life and the pool of peace in Jerusalem.
Shiloh or Siloam flows from Him and to Him. He IS the way of salvation to the living water.
The Pool of Siloam
John 9
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth…
7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent).
The Lord touched you and commands, “Go” (do this or that). Will you obey? OR Do you question Jesus?
The religious elite questioned Him, but the blind man obeyed.
“Do you believe in the Son of God?”
36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”
37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”
38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.
And Jesus said,
“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
John 9:39 NKJVSent to the World – Shiloh in a Manger
“Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. – The Good News of the Gentile Physician Luke 2:11
Thirty some years later He returns to Jerusalem – the Lamb of God in the Person of Jesus.
Luke 19:
Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:
Blessed is the King who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest heaven!
“Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory? ”
Luke 24:26Of course it was.
We worship the Christ of the manger of Christmas because of the Lamb of God sent to the Cross for our sins.
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
John 14:27 CSBMay the Lord bless your worship of Jesus, our gift of Shiloh this CHRISTmas.
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WE Have Been Here Before – Prophecies
Prophecies of Christ’s Birth
We have been here before in scripture. You likely know Bethlehem from the New Testament, yet this little town’s importance derives from prophecies in the Old Testament. The Messiah is predicted in prophecies of Isaiah, who we met previously and also Micah of Moresheth-Gath.
Bethlehem
‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,
ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH;
FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER
WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’” – Matthew 2:6(‘ephrath; Ephratha)
The Good News of Matthew quotes the prophecy of Micah 5:2.
Luke tells us why Joseph had to go to Bethlehem for the Roman Census commanded by Caesar Augustus.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.
Luke 2:4-5 NKJVYou may have to register for a #census2020. Rome was not so accommodating as to come to you, but ordered citizens to go to the home of your birth. Rome accounted for every captive local and taxed each and every one of them regardless of where they lived.
Matthew records this lineage of Joseph from David. Bethlehem becomes his town of registration because of David.
Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse…
1 Samuel 17:12a NASBListen, House of David
Therefore, Jesus is born of the house of David rooted in Bethlehem. Mary and Jesus are also registered as Joseph’s family of the lineage of David. As we learn later even wise men come to this place of the Lord’s birth due to the prophesies of the Old Testament.
More than 700 years Before Christ Ahaz would become a vassal king subjected to Assyria, just as Herod was subjected to the rule of Caesar Augustus. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of the Messiah even in this time centuries before the Messiah Jesus.
13 Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? 14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign:
See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7 excerpt CSB, WLC14 לָ֠כֵן יִתֵּ֨ן אֲדֹנָ֥י ה֛וּא לָכֶ֖ם א֑וֹת הִנֵּ֣ה הָעַלְמָ֗ה הָרָה֙ וְיֹלֶ֣דֶת בֵּ֔ן וְקָרָ֥את שְׁמ֖וֹ עִמָּ֥נוּ אֵֽל׃
The wise men from the east in generations past understood these prophesies. Isaiah answered Ahaz not in the singular, but in the plural for the descendant house of David. Almost literally the LORD prophesies through Isaiah “the woman pregnant with the Son named [‘el] [`Immanuw’el].
Prophecies of the Messiah
עִמָּנוּאֵל
Immanuel = “God with us” or “with us is God”
symbolic and prophetic name of the Messiah, the Christ, prophesying that He would be born of a virgin and would be ‘God with us’
And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
Isaiah 8:8 KJVWe will speak more of the context of this when we continue, God-willing, but first let’s return to the prophesy of Micah of Moresheth-Gath.
Coming Judgment on Israel
5 וְאַתָּ֞ה בֵּֽית־לֶ֣חֶם אֶפְרָ֗תָה צָעִיר֙ לִֽהְיוֹת֙ בְּאַלְפֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה מִמְּךָ֙ לִ֣י יֵצֵ֔א לִֽהְי֥וֹת מוֹשֵׁ֖ל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וּמוֹצָאֹתָ֥יו מִקֶּ֖דֶם מִימֵ֥י עוֹלָֽם׃
2 לָכֵ֣ן יִתְּנֵ֔ם עַד־עֵ֥ת יוֹלֵדָ֖ה יָלָ֑דָה וְיֶ֣תֶר אֶחָ֔יו יְשׁוּב֖וּן עַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
מיכה 5 The Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)Micah 1 (CSB)
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Listen, all you peoples;
pay attention, earth and everyone in it!The Lord God will be a witness against you,
the Lord, from his holy temple.
3 Look, the Lord is leaving his place
and coming down to trample
the heights of the earth.
4 The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split apart,
like wax near a fire,
like water cascading down a mountainside.
5 All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.Micah 5: (NASB)
Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
They have laid siege against us;With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”3 Therefore He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.4 And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God...Much prophetic voice here about Jesus the Messiah born in Bethlehem to a trial of the Son of Man in Jerusalem.
Micah foresees and explains the Lord giving up on Israel until the Messiah’s return! The prophecies of Isaiah and Micah speak not only to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, but beyond to a day yet unseen.
8 The remnant of Jacob
Will be among the nations,
Among many peoples…10 “It will be in that day,” declares the Lord…
“I will also cut off the cities of your land
And tear down all your fortifications…וְעָשִׂ֜יתִי בְּאַ֧ף וּבְחֵמָ֛ה נָקָ֖ם אֶת־הַגֹּויִ֑ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר לֹ֥א שָׁמֵֽעוּ׃ ס
“And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath
Micah 5:15
On the nations which have not obeyed.”To be continued...
